Thursday, November 16, 2017

What The Heck is ‘Mansplaining’?

This Blog Post Written By Raven Jared J.

The mansplaining sensation that’s gripping the
nation: how and why does it affect our culture?

Our
story today begins with a personal anecdote that leads to the question you may
be asking yourself right now, what the heck is ‘mansplaining’? When I first
came across this term (ah how naïve I was) I assumed ‘mansplaining’ was some
cute funny way in which men were explaining things. The inner voice of a 1940’s
radio show host echoed in my head: “Gather ‘round folks! Give this man a topic
and watch him go!” I pictured a brightly colored wheel with topics like
“reproduction”, “the female body”, and “where to buy the best artisan cheese
board” spinning to land on a segment that some poor man would be struggling to
explain. But despite how adorable the word itself sounds, the actual meaning of
‘mansplaining’ and more importantly, the implications of the action, are so
different from what I originally assumed. For those of you who may believe that
sexism doesn’t exist anymore, well, take a seat and try not to ‘manspread’
while doing so.

To
quote our good friends at Urban Dictionary, ‘mansplaining’ is simply this: “A
term used to describe an exaggerated definition of a simple idea given by a
man to woman if he feels that she is not educated enough or would not
understand the meaning of said word. The idea is generally something that the woman in very
familiar with.” A far cry from the sweet little term I thought it was, no? For
example, it would be like a man explaining how birth works to a mother with
children, or better yet some condescending comment that would suggest that the
mother had no idea what childbirth or raising children is like. Bonus points if
the man in question has no children. Double word score if the man has never
interacted with children or even read a book about birth.

Discovering this term has helped me
understand quite a few interactions I have encountered in my 19 years on this
planet. Having a word for the way that I have been addressed by my male
counterparts, employers, friends and customers, has allowed me to be let in on
a kind of secret club; a really big club consisting of pretty much every living
woman on the planet. The point is this, the fact that there is a term for this
action lets me know as a woman, that I am not alone, and certainly not
incompetent as I have been made to feel by those that insist upon commenting on
subjects I did not ask for commentary on.

Last summer I worked for an
irrigation company, (the people who come to install and fix your sprinkler
systems) and when I say I was the only female person to work there, I think I
was the only female person to work there ever,
possibly the only woman working for an irrigation company in my district, maybe
even county. What can I say? It is a heavily male dominated business, and something
I came to be very aware of. Thankfully, my boss treated me as an equal and
entrusted me with the same amount of responsibility as the men I worked beside.
The customers however, did not treat me the same way as my male counterparts.

When
I first began working I knew that people may feel strange about seeing a new
face in a company that has been serving them for 20+ years, and I brushed off
many comments as just that. After working for a few months however, I started
training a guy who was a few years younger than me, and had never done any
irrigation work before. It was then that I fully realized the way many of the
male customers would speak to me differently than the way they would speak to
the guy I was training. The men I am referring to would assume that he was in
charge; more experienced, and wouldn’t question the things that he would say to
them about their sprinklers. When speaking to me, they would assume that not
only did I not know what I was doing, but try to give me instruction on how to
fix the specific leaks that they had called the professionals in to fix. And
when given this unsolicited “advice” it would usually be so wrong I would have
to explain as politely as possible that I did in fact know what I was doing,
which was almost always followed up with an “are you sure?” a question never
posed to the guy I had been training.Here are some actual things that
were actually said to me:“How long have you been working here?”“Are you sure you know what you are doing?”“I think you are doing that wrong, you should put this
[wrong object] here [wrong place].”“I’ll tell you what the problem is… [Not the problem]”“It would be a lot better if you would just do this
[terrible idea that will flood the yard].”“Well this is what happened [nope] and here is how to fix it
[absolutely not]”

Because I am a woman, seeing me
digging ditches in their yard, laying pipe or fixing geyser-like leaks, many
male customers assumed that I was either unqualified or incompetent, and it
became a part of the job that I had to get used to. As much as I loved the
work, and proving some customers wrong that I could do this work and do it
well, it was something that did bother me. Unfortunately, being ‘mansplained’
to is a part of the job of being a woman you have to get used to.

The way we speak is what shapes our
culture, because the way we speak and the way we address each other shapes the
way we think. Although on its surface ‘mansplaining’ doesn’t cause any serious
harm, it is a sexist way of communication that shapes our culture, and affects
not only women, but men too. Linguistically, ‘mansplaining’ is a fascinating
subject. It is a popular enough occurrence to have gained a term, and allows
people like me to know they are not alone, and that you must gently redirect
the comments thrown at you to perhaps change the way a man thinks. I am happy
to say that by the end of the summer working that irrigation job, some
customers would specifically request to have me come back, and many of the men
who were my harshest critics in the beginning learned that just because I was a
young woman didn’t mean I couldn’t do a “man’s work”. This isn’t always the
case though, and regrettably, it is so hard to change someone’s mind about the
way they address women, because to them, they aren’t doing anything wrong. But
what does this say about our current society? This term lets us know that
sexism is still alive and well, and perhaps isn’t going away anytime soon; but
admitting we have a problem is the first way to solving it, so maybe raising awareness
can turn something that isn’t malicious (but not necessarily benign) into a way
that we can actively change the way we speak, and thus, changing our
culture.

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Disclaimer

What I post here is intended only as a forum to discuss ideas. Please be aware that referred to research or sources evolve over time so the documents referred to on this blog may be superseded by new information.

Oh, and BTW I use the following broad definition of Health Literacy:“A health literate person is able to use health concepts and information generatively—applying information to novel situations. This is critical to our efforts to prepare the public to react to complex public health emergencies.”(From invited paper presented by me - Surgeon General’s Report on Health Literacy, September 7 2006, Bethesda Maryland http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/healthliteracy/toc.html)